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Forscher in North Carolina arbeiten an einem "smarten" Pflaster für Diabetiker, das automatisch Insulin ins Blut abgeben soll.

Zuckerkranke Menschen müssen regelmäßig ihren Blutzuckerspiegel überprüfen und sich Insulin spritzen. Zwar gibt es bereits Insulinpumpen mit Sensoren auf dem Markt, die dieses Prozedere erleichtern. Doch die sind teuer – und Patienten müssen alle paar Tage einen dünnen Katheter durch die Haut stechen, was nicht unbedingt angenehm ist.

Forscher an der University of Nort…

Facebook finished construction on first drone, will test in "real world" soon. Facebook has made significant progress in a project to build solar-powered drones that can deliver Internet connectivity using a mix of lasers and radio signals, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday.

"I'm excited to announce we’ve completed construction of our first full scale aircraft, Aquila, as part of our Internet.org effort," Zuckerberg wrote. "Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down Interne…

LIVERMORE, California, July 27, 2015 (ENS) – The world’s largest hydrogen fueling station is in the works for San Francisco. Plans call for it to serve fuel cell electric cars, buses and fleet vehicles in addition to a high-speed ferry and other maritime vessels.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, MARAD, is funding a feasibility study to examine the technical, regulatory and economic aspects of the project.

“The Maritime Administration is committed to finding new a…

With the lowering of giant steel legs to the sea bottom off Rhode Island, construction has officially begun on the country’s first offshore wind farm, starting what U.S. officials hope will be a race to harness a vast energy resource capable of powering millions of homes along the East Coast.

Elected officials and Deepwater Wind executives cheer during a ceremony to mark the installation of foundations for a wind farm in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off Rhode Island on Monday. The planned …

This is what it looks like when Nasa purposefully pummels a plane into the ground from 100 feet in the air.

Although commercial jets reach heights of up to 39,000 feet on average, and even this four-seat, single-engine Cessna 172 used by Nasa reaches 13,000 feet, the point of this experiment was not the height: it was the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) onboard.

When Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing in March 2014, there was a time when a glimmer of hope remained that those onboa…

Tesco's self-service checkout machines are about to get much less trying.

Thanks to feedback from customers,Tesco is implementing changes to the vocals of its checkout robots in a bid to encourage people to join the self-service line, rather than queue for the one human-operated till.

It is news that any Tesco customer who has ever heard the dreaded words "unexpected item in bagging area" -- which seems to precede the checkouts going into internal meltdown until a human appears to soothe it …

Is there anything Google can’t turn into a search engine? First it was just websites, then it had its hands in our mail, calendars and our photos. Now – in case you needed any further proof that Google is Skynet – it’s developing the technology to search and playback our real-life memories.

According to a patent filed with the US Patent Office, Google is hoping to design a “method and apparatus for enabling a searchable history of real-world user experiences.” The digital memory bank will use …

What if we told you there was a set of earbuds that could transform how you hear the world? Yes, we know, that could be the slogan for virtually any audio company on the planet, but this time it’s meant literally.

Noah Kraft, CEO of Doppler Labs, says that he “wants to put a computer, speaker, and mic in everyone’s ear.” The company is launching Here Active Listening, a pair of small battery-powered buds that come with exactly what Kraft envisioned; a mic, speaker and digital sound processor wh…

You know Project Loon? Google’s ambitious plan to provide cheap Internet access to underdeveloped parts of the world via a fleet of high altitude balloons? Well after years of testing and refining the technology, the company is finally ready to deploy it for real — and it’s starting with the small island nation of Sri Lanka.

Foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera said officials signed an agreement with Google in the capital city of Colombo to launch the helium-filled, high-tech balloons over the …

He might be 52, but construction worker Akimichi Takada is finding it easier to carry heavy loads--thanks to a robotic power suit.

The “HAL for Labor Support” robotic suit is worn around the waist and equipped with motor-driven arms to assist workers who have to frequently bend their knees and bodies to lift and carry weighty materials.

Construction workers wear Cyberdyne Inc.’s HAL robotic suits in Tokyo in June. (Hikaru Uchida)

“I felt uncomfortable when I first wore the suit,” said Takada, …

It's not just humans who love to sit back and sip on an alcoholic beverage ... wild chimps do too. Chimpanzees have been discovered pilfering palm "wine" collected by humans from trees in Guinea in Western Africa by an international research team including primatologists from Kyoto University.

A young chimpanzee drinks palm "wine" from a tank using a leaf. (Provided by Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute)

It's the first time a wild animal species has been found habitually consuming a…

OSAKA--Osaka University scientists said they fired the world's most powerful laser beam. It instantaneously concentrated energy equivalent to 1,000 times the world's electricity consumption and entered the record books as the most powerful laser beam ever emitted, the researchers said on July 27.

The high-output laser "LFEX" at Osaka University's Institute of Laser Engineering (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Although the energy of the laser beam itself was only powerful enough to run a microwave fo…

Part electric bicycle, part motorcycle and part moped, the Bolt M-1 is a capable, two-wheeled machine engineered for urban commuting. The fully electric bike wears light motorcycle styling and can put out up to 5,500 watts for speeds up to 40 mph (64 km/h). It can also be dialed back to 1,000 watts and ridden like an e-bike.

The Bolt M-1, born in San Francisco (Credit: Bolt Motorbikes)

Bolt Motorbikes founder and CEO Dr. Nathan Jauvtis began commuting on a moped around the time he first moved …

Ever since Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant was destroyed by a combined earthquake and tsunami, the country has been faced with a significant shortage of generating power. In the short term, Japan ramped up its reliance on coal and liquefied natural gas, and instituted electricity rationing and asked consumers to cut their consumption by 15%.

Advocates of green power have called for the deployment of additional wind and solar power generators, but both have been limited by Japan’s small land ar…

Expandiertes Polystyrol ist überall. Der Kunststoff, besser bekannt als Styropor, klebt an Häusern, um Fassaden zu dämmen oder füllt Kartons, um Ware zu polstern. Mehr als 800.000 Tonnen verarbeitet die deutsche Kunststoffindustrie nach Angaben des Umweltbundesamts jedes Jahr. Und schadet damit massiv der Umwelt.

Zwar besteht Polystyrol zu 98 Prozent aus Luft, ist also extrem leicht und günstig. Die restlichen zwei Prozent allerdings, ein kugelförmiges Granulat, werden aus Rohöl gewonnen. Fünf…

Korallen sind wunderschön, nützlich und extrem bedroht. Vor allem durch die Erwärmung der Weltmeere: 50 Prozent aller Korallen sind bereits verschwunden – bei einem weiteren Temperaturanstieg könnten Riffe als Ökosystem 2050 tot sein.

Aber auch die Belastung mit Schwermetallen setzt den Tieren zu. Denn sie sind sehr effizient darin, diese aus dem Wasser zu absorbieren – sterben allerdings auch dadurch. Ein heroischer Tod, den chinesische Forscher nun überflüssig machen wollen.

Die Wissenschaft…

After WIRED journalist Andy Greenberg's jeep was stunt-hacked and driven into a ditch by remote car hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek last week, Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles for a software fix. But they aren't the only ones with extreme vulnerabilities. "Currently 95 percent of major European car brands -- Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Bentley, Renault, Toyota, Lexus -- use keyless entry, which means the car automatically unlocks and starts when you're nearby," says Boris Danev,…

Mit dem Modell Solo von US-Hersteller 3D Robotics startet der Verkauf einer weiteren, lang erwarteten Consumer-Drohne für den semiprofessionellen Gebrauch. Entscheidender Unterschied zu vegleichbaren Fluggeräten: Die 3DR Solo hat einen 1-Gigahertz-Linux-Rechner an Bord und selbigen in der — durch Smartphone oder Tabelet ergänzbaren — Steuerkonsole verbaut.

Dadurch sollen Hard- und Software Open Source gehalten und die Flugsteuerung soweit vereinfacht werden, dass sich Piloten weitestgehend auf…

Ein Forscher-Team hat transparentes Nanopapier modifiziert, so dass es selbst Energie generiert. Das könnte den Weg zu Papier-basierter Elektronik ebnen, die keiner externen Stromquelle bedarf.

Papier mit eingebetteter Elektronik herzustellen, daran arbeiten Forscher bereits seit einigen Jahren. Sie versprechen sich davon leichte, flexible und in der Herstellung kostengünstige Geräte. Das Ziel dieser Forschung ist es, auf Kunststoff und Glas als Trägermaterial für elektronische Schaltkreise zu …

Nanopaper-based energy harvester could lead to cheap, renewable touch sensors and electronic devices. A new transparent-paper device can generate electrical power from a user’s touch (ACS Nano 2015, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b02414).

The paper energy-harvester could be used to make disposable, self-powered touch screens that fold; interactive light-up books; touch-sensitive skin for prosthetics; and security systems for art and documents, the researchers say.